S.Sudan police withdraw from disputed Abyei - UN

May 11, 2012|Reuters

* Growing border clashes threaten return to war in Abyei

* UN Council to vote on peacekeeping renewal on May 16

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (Reuters) - South Sudan has withdrawnits police from the disputed Abyei region on its border withSudan, the United Nations said on Friday, after the U.N.Security Council threatened the African neighbors with sanctionsto try and stop an escalating conflict.

Sudan and South Sudan both claim Abyei, a border regioncontaining fertile grazing land, which Khartoum took in May lastyear - triggering the exodus of tens of thousands of civilians -after a southern attack on an army convoy.

Recent border clashes between Sudan and South Sudan, whichculminated with South Sudan seizing a disputed oil field,prompted the Security Council to pass a resolution last weekthreatening sanctions if the two sides did not follow an AfricanUnion roadmap stipulating a ceasefire and a return to talks.

"The U.N. Interim Security Force for Abyei reports thatyesterday South Sudan's inspector general officially ordered thewithdrawal of the South Sudan police service from the Abyeiarea," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman MartinNesirky told reporters.

"Following the announcement some 700 South Sudan police,with the U.N. mission's logistical support, relocated to SouthSudan," he said. "The U.N. mission is in the process ofverifying that all South Sudan police elements have withdrawnfrom the Abyei area."

The withdrawal comes almost two weeks after South Sudan toldthe United Nations it planned to pull its police out of Abyei,where the world body has 3,800 peacekeepers. ID:nL5E8FT0NY]

Nesirky said South Sudanese police officers had been orderednot to visit family in the Abyei area in uniform and with guns.

The United Nations said in March that Sudan has 400-500troops in Abyei and South Sudan has about 300 soldiers basedless than two miles south of its border with Abyei.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July, six months after areferendum agreed under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades ofcivil war that killed more than 2 million people. Such a votewas originally also planned in Abyei but was never held as bothsides have been unable to agree on who can participate.

A senior Western diplomat said on Wednesday that it wasoften difficult to verify allegations South Sudan and Sudan aremaking against each other. But he said that if the two sidesfail to withdraw from the disputed border area of Abyei by May16 as demanded by the council, talk of sanctions would begin.

The security council is due to vote on the renewal of themandate for the U.N. peacekeeping force on May 16.

In a May 2 resolution the Security Council gave the twosides a 48-hour ultimatum to halt violence and three months toresolve all disputes under threat of sanctions.

Distrust runs deep between the neighbors, who are atloggerheads over the position of their shared border and howmuch the landlocked south should pay to transport its oilthrough Sudan.

Analysts have long said tensions between the countries coulderupt into a full-blown war and disrupt the surrounding region,which includes some of Africa's most promising economies.